Previous Topics
In First Thoughts

7/18/2009 xjermx: question: body or no body?
I'm writing a short amnesia style scenario that I intend to run with a tabletop and/or online group.  I'm torn on a certain piece of the setup, and hoping I…
In First Thoughts
Participants: xjermx, Simon C, Bill_White.

7/18/2009 Luke: Kill Power 19
The so-called "Power 19" have been clogging up the design pipes here for too long. I'm here to kill the Power 19. These questions purport to consolidate nine years of…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Luke, Vulpinoid, Lance D. Allen, Jonathan Walton, ShallowThoughts, mjbauer, anders_larsen, opsneakie, Paul Czege, Andy Kitkowski, sockmonkey, Wordman, Thor Olavsrud, Noclue, Garbados, JoyWriter, Librabys, Troy_Costisick, David C, Patrice, Frank Tarcikowski, brianbloodaxe, Ben Lehman, Mike Sugarbaker, Ron Edwards.

7/15/2009 sockmonkey: [Chronoplex] Handling Languages In A Time Travel Setting
The working title of the game I'm writing is Chronoplex. It is a time travel game that emphasizes the 'travel' element. I'm happy to share more details of the game,…
In First Thoughts
Participants: sockmonkey, Vulpinoid, Luke, HeTeleports, MacLeod, chance.thirteen, David Artman, billvolk, Castlin, 7VII7.

7/14/2009 ShallowThoughts: Suggestion for addition to lexicon for table-top game design
Nothing big. It comes out of my work on my own RPG. Come to think of it, I can't imagine why it has not been suggested earlier what with the…
In First Thoughts
Participants: ShallowThoughts, trick, Vulpinoid, Lance D. Allen.

7/14/2009 sockmonkey: Presenting New Game Ideas
Hello, all. Longtime lurker, first time poster. :D I know a lot of people present their game ideas in the form of the Power 19, but I've seen others just…
In First Thoughts
Participants: sockmonkey, JadedDemiGod, dindenver, Mike Sugarbaker, JoyWriter, Luke, Patrice, Brimshack, ShallowThoughts, Ben Lehman, Catelf, Ron Edwards.

7/14/2009 JadedDemiGod: Setting the Setting
Hi all, Names Ian im a little new (ok first time) but i like the place so ill give it a shot. Im currently working on a Science Fiction P&P…
In First Thoughts
Participants: JadedDemiGod, Eero Tuovinen, Abkajud, Luke, dindenver, Matt Wilson, Adam Dray, lachek, Lance D. Allen, nikola.

7/13/2009 mogunus: [Mayhem] Resolution System
I am having a particular problem hashing out how my resolution system is going to work. My resolution system should facilitate simulationist play. I would enjoy some non-trivial Exploration of…
In First Thoughts
Participants: mogunus, markhaselb, Bill_White.

7/13/2009 mogunus: [Mayhem] Power 19
1. What is your game about? Mayhem is about the fabric of sentient culture, as expressed through mythology. Normative behavior and mythology evolve together, and influence the course of civilization.…
In First Thoughts
Participants: mogunus, markhaselb, JoyWriter, Adam Dray, Bill_White, Simon C, Noclue.

7/12/2009 markhaselb: Power 19 for my game and concept discussion
Hello everyone, I am currently in the design phase of a game I want to develop. In the past I tried several settings and ideas for games, but I never…
In First Thoughts
Participants: markhaselb, Jonathan Walton.

7/7/2009 Ayyavazi: Need Help with Genre examples
Hello all, You may remember my discussions earlier about the system I was designing with some heavy Dogs influence and morality attributes. That system is still under construction, but it…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Ayyavazi, Brimshack, Vulpinoid, M. Burrell.

7/4/2009 JMendes: Competitive Story Overlay
Ahey, all, :) I'd like to share with you an insight that a friend of mine had, and an insight that I had that builds on top of his. The…
In First Thoughts
Participants: JMendes, Jasper Flick.

7/4/2009 Garbados: Dice-less Systems: feedback on and experiences with
I'm creating a setting-independent highly-extensible dice-less system called Ex Deus, and was looking for feedback or play experience with systems that didn't use dice. So guys, what're they like? What…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Garbados, M. Burrell, Jasper Flick, Tyler.Tinsley.

7/3/2009 EvilCat: Survival and lethality in a Sinking City setting.
Imagine a sci-fi dome city in an open ocean. For some reason, all computers go crazy, monsters spawn everywhere, and the city begins to sink. There is a hundred or…
In First Thoughts
Participants: EvilCat, JMendes, M. Burrell, Noon, David C, Ron Edwards.

7/2/2009 Brimshack: Kitchen Sink Fantasy Setting
I am trying to put together the beginnings of a campaign setting. One of the central ideas of this setting is that all the peoples of the real world should…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Brimshack, Dr. Velocity.

7/1/2009 Patrice: Idealized play experience : another look at Heartbreakers
Bumping from the S/lay W/Me playtest forum, I've decided to take another look at designing my own ideal RPG from a different seed. Instead of asking myself "what would my…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Patrice, M. Burrell, Abkajud, Vulpinoid, brianbloodaxe, Ron Edwards, MacLeod, whiteknife, noahtrammell, JoyWriter.

6/30/2009 Zzarchov: Looking for Feedback on a simple introductory "Party Game" RPG
I hope this is the correct forum for this, apologies if not. I was looking to get some general design feedback from a simple "Party Game" RPG of mine. The…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Zzarchov, M. Burrell, MacLeod, Noon, Mike Sugarbaker, Selene Tan.

6/30/2009 Marshall Burns: [MADCorp] buddy mechanics?
[i]MADCorp[/i] is the game of corporate dungeoncrawling horror. (You heard me). You work for MADCorp, the Mercenary/Adventurer/Dungeoneer Corporation. You do the dirty work of going into the dungeons, and MADCorp…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Marshall Burns, M. Burrell, David C.

6/30/2009 kingkaius: education for game design?
As a college student finishing up his undergraduate degree in film production, I'm wondering whether there are any programs/degrees which would allow for the academic study of rpg design and…
In First Thoughts
Participants: kingkaius, David Artman, chance.thirteen, Eero Tuovinen, whiteknife, mjbauer, HeTeleports, Ron Edwards, jasonm, Jonathan Walton, Mike Sugarbaker, kleenestar, J. Tuomas Harviainen.

6/30/2009 Zombie Cylon: D&D Mechanics: To Use, or Not to Use
I was wondering if anyone knows: Are there any legal restrictions on incorporating (into a new system) the simple D&D mechanic of rolling 3d6 for six attributes and rolling a…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Zombie Cylon, David C, Vulpinoid, greyorm, Eero Tuovinen.

6/29/2009 Kalandri: Generic, simple, card-based narrativist drama
The details of this game were inspired by and stolen from so many other things I can't possibly list them. Standard GM/Player arrangement. Deck of cards (with two jokers) and…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Kalandri, Grimgor, noahtrammell, Bill_White.

<< more previous topics

Subsequent Topics
In First Thoughts

7/19/2009 John Blaz: Speed and Accuracy, new system thought with example of play
Hey everyone, second time attempting to post this, so I'll be brief. The quicker you want something done, the less accurate it will be. Simple fact. I wanted to make…
In First Thoughts
Participants: John Blaz, Simon C, Bill_White, Noon, Garbados.

7/20/2009 Alokov: New RPG idea Frozen Dawn RPG
Hey. I'm writing my own RPG now. I am only a teenager so please bear with my  teenage silliness. It's a post-apocalyptic game set at the end of the next…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Alokov, Luke, David C, brianbloodaxe, greyorm, Thunder_God, Noclue, Simon C, Noon, contracycle, AcaBerry, dindenver, cocohow, lumpley, Jeff B.

7/20/2009 Garbados: [Ex Deus] System: Simple, Fast, Intuitive, Universal, Compelling
I began work on Ex Deus roughly five months ago, seeking to reconcile GURPS' unprecedented universality and detail with White Wolf's compelling simplicity. No single system I knew of accommodated…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Garbados, Alokov, Bill_White, Ron Edwards, Thunder_God, Luke, Lance D. Allen, Alex Abate, SAW, Mike Sugarbaker, Fatespinner, Noclue, Tyler.Tinsley, Simon C.

7/20/2009 flossy: New Game - Pearly Gates
I have an idea for a game called 'Pearly Gates'. The premise is that you have just died and you are justifying whether you go up to heaven or down…
In First Thoughts
Participants: flossy, Alokov, jasonm.

7/20/2009 sockmonkey: Editorial Timeline Samples?
I'm not sure if this is where this belongs. It seems to me there is a step missing between First Thoughts and Playtesting. Perhaps a Development forum could be considered?…
In First Thoughts
Participants: sockmonkey, Luke, Lance D. Allen.

7/20/2009 HeTeleports: Design from the other end of the games industry
While the Forge is a role-playing design community, any amount of theory is worth investigating how it applies to our design. This is an hour-long lecture on design -- but…
In First Thoughts
Participants: HeTeleports, greyorm, Noon, ShallowThoughts, RabbitHoleGames, Ralek, Wordman, David C, AzaLiN.

7/20/2009 MacLeod: Several Minor Ideas, Thoughts Please? [somewhat lengthy]
I have some minor ideas, questions and the like... I had to wait for a while as none of these questions seemed major enough to warrant a new thread by…
In First Thoughts
Participants: MacLeod, markhaselb, Luke, JoyWriter, Mike Sugarbaker.

7/21/2009 HeTeleports: Discovering your powers -- an exercise of IIEE (or IIEC, etc.)
You know what's always cool about superhero origin stories? The transformation of the protagonist. That's what Joseph Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces" is really about. That's what the first…
In First Thoughts
Participants: HeTeleports, Simon C, Luke.

7/21/2009 GregStolze: Ugh, deprotagonize me! Make me like it!
Somewhere (probably on the internet) I read someone complaining about "the dice telling me what to do."  So I started thinking.  Why's that a bad thing?  Constraint breeds creativity, after…
In First Thoughts
Participants: GregStolze, Adam Dray, Marshall Burns, MacLeod, Noon, GreatWolf, sockmonkey, JoyWriter, TonyLB.

7/21/2009 andomonir: Two-player RPGs
Hi, I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this (first time poster), but I was wondering: Has anyone addressed the scenario of two player gaming? Would…
In First Thoughts
Participants: andomonir, Ron Edwards, Jonathan Walton.

7/22/2009 Alex Abate: An educative rpg idea.
First, I would like to say I am sorry for not being a very consistent poster here. I would like to post around here a lot more than I do,…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Alex Abate, Jonathan Walton, Thor Olavsrud.

7/22/2009 Alokov: Game of Thrones RPG editions
Alright. First of all I really don't know if this fits in this forum but I have no idea where else to post it so forgive me if I screwed…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Alokov, chaviro, Luke, Adam Dray.

7/22/2009 noahtrammell: Two-Player FATE
  With reading all the discussions on twosies lately, I think the idea for a two-player game kinda slipped into my subconscious.  While reading, I've noticed that most of these…
In First Thoughts
Participants: noahtrammell, jasonm, Ron Edwards, Patrice.

7/22/2009 Moltora: Help with combat system
I am designing a game and i would just like to ask you to look for any holes or arguments in my system... Here is the link, just click the…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Moltora, Simon C, Luke.

7/22/2009 sockmonkey: [Chronoplex] A Brief Overview
I meant to have this posted long before now, but real life keeps horning in. So before I lose my chance, here is a brief introduction to Chronoplex: ------------------------------ Chronoplex…
In First Thoughts
Participants: sockmonkey, chronoplasm, Simon C, VoidDragon, brianbloodaxe.

7/22/2009 brianbloodaxe: [Oxygen] Non-physical conflicts
After a couple of test sessions of my SF game Oxygen (read all about it here:http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=28244.0) and after reading a load of threads in here I have had a couple…
In First Thoughts
Participants: brianbloodaxe, chance.thirteen, Luke, Simon C, Gregor Hutton, HeTeleports, Lance D. Allen.

7/22/2009 chronoplasm: Roll to Break the Rules
OK, so I've been working (off and on) on a game that is similar to D&D except that the Dungeon Master is an opponent that is encouraged for killing off…
In First Thoughts
Participants: chronoplasm, Luke, Simon C, Noon, Patrice, markhaselb, M. Burrell, sockmonkey, mjbauer, JoyWriter.

7/24/2009 Mordy: RPGing on the Fly
I'm a long-term lurker (a couple years), but this is my first post. First I want to thank everyone on the forums for turning me onto some remarkable games, and…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Mordy, Luke, brianbloodaxe, Simon C, Vulpinoid.

7/24/2009 ShallowThoughts: Distinguishing between good-good/bad-good, and simply boring actions
I realize the topic title is mystifying, so I'll explain. I'm working on a character growth/reward system (mentioned in a recent post Chits and the Void) where the PCs are…
In First Thoughts
Participants: ShallowThoughts, Luke, Patrice, dindenver, Lance D. Allen, anders_larsen.

7/25/2009 Lance D. Allen: [Mage Blade]: Spellcasting
It's laughable to call this a first thought. I've taken magic back to formula almost as many times as character generation. So we'll call this a Born-Again First Thought. As…
In First Thoughts
Participants: Lance D. Allen, Simon C, brianbloodaxe, Bill_White, Johnstone.

more subsequent topics >>